


In the Beginning...

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-20 13:50:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2431157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“This isn’t Showgirls…I didn’t shove Elle Greenaway down a flight of stairs.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Beginning...

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Lessons Learned.

“Car trouble?”

 

“Jesus!” Emily jumped, turning to stare at the face of Jason Gideon. His head was poking into the window of her BMW. “You scared the hell out of me.”

 

“I didn’t think you scared so easily.” He moved back but it was hardly a fraction of an inch.

 

“We all have our fears, Special Agent Gideon.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Parking lots late at night give me the creeps. My car suddenly deciding not to start doesn’t help.”

 

“I’ll give you a ride.” Jason opened the driver’s side door and Prentiss got out.

 

“I think…”

 

“What? You think AAA will actually come out here tonight. Do you want to put some money on that?”

 

“They would, I have excellent coverage. I just don’t want to sit out here for two hours waiting.” Taking a deep breath, Emily grabbed her travel bag from the backseat and locked her car. Then she followed Jason.

 

“Does Hotch know that we know each other?” he asked.

 

“What a strange way to start a conversation. You make it sound as if there is something illicit between us.”

 

“There isn’t.”

 

“I know that. I have no idea what he knows. He and I have met before…he was on one of my mother’s details when I was a senior in high school. He was the newbie.”

 

“We all have to be sometimes.”

 

“You still have it.” Emily stopped in front of the 1968 silver blue Aston Martin DB5 Vantage convertible. She looked at Jason as he took the bag from her hand and put it in the trunk.

 

“A few collectors still feel the need to pursue.” He opened her door. “Maybe one day I’ll give in.” coming around the driver’s side, he got in and went on. “It’s not the most practical car in the universe.”

 

“But it goes 120.” She replied.

 

“You remember that?”

 

“You only said…” Emily could barely conceal her smile. “I've never had the experience.”

 

“Speaking of experience…”

 

“My parents’ connections are not the reason I got this job.”

 

“I wasn’t going to say that.”

 

“Everyone says that.”

 

“I think you know that I am not everybody.”

 

“You didn’t want to take me to Cuba. You didn’t think that I could handle it.”

 

That was not the reason. Jason started the car and pulled out of his parking space. He was sure that Emily Prentiss was a good profiler. She graduated summa cum laude from Yale University, had a master’s degree from Harvard University, and was second in her class at the Academy. 

 

She also had eleven years of FBI field experience. What concerned him was breaking her in on a case where thousands of lives were at stake. There would be no handholding at Gitmo…there was no time. She proved him wrong though. Sometimes Jason Gideon could handle being wrong.

 

“I did not want you blaming yourself if anything went wrong.” He finally said.

 

Emily did not respond but she uncrossed her arms.

 

“Why did you pretend you didn’t know I could play chess? Was that for Dr. Reid’s benefit?”

 

“I wasn’t pretending; I had forgotten.”

 

“You don’t forget anything.” She replied.

 

“That is both a blessing and a curse.”

 

“I understand that. I want this, Gideon. Hell, everyone in the FBI wants this. I earned it but if I cannot be trusted then it is never going to work. You and Aaron Hotchner create that trust. If you treat me like an outsider, so will the rest of the team. This isn’t _Showgirls_ …I didn’t shove Elle Greenaway down a flight of stairs.”

 

He looked at her and laughed. It was a deep, hearty sound and it was infectious. Soon they were laughing together.

 

“ _Showgirls_?” Jason raised an eyebrow.

 

“I have no idea where that came from.”

 

“Trust has to be earned, young Prentiss. If you do what you do best then it will come. It will not be bestowed upon you and you don’t ever want it to be. I know you, and I know that.”

 

“I want nothing bestowed upon me.” she said, a faint smile on her face as she remembered him calling her that years ago.

 

“Now I have a very important question for you.”

 

“Alright.”

 

“Where do you live?”

 

Emily laughed again and Jason suddenly remembered that he really liked her laugh. He did not hear it often but he remembered liking when he did. Other things came back to him too. She used to wear an intoxicating scent but he could not recall the name. It was light, soft, and reminded him of satin sheets and rainy nights. 

 

She took a lot of heat at The Academy…they used to call her The Heiress. No matter how much she excelled, the other students always whispered that her parentage got her a spot. Her eyes were so eager and inquisitive but when he looked deep, he saw the fear and isolation. There were more security walls and barbed wire around Emily Prentiss than at Guantanamo Bay. Jason wondered if anyone really knew her. He wondered if she knew herself.

 

“The Watergate Suites.” She replied.

 

“Very nice.”

 

“Thank you. Do you still have the house in Georgetown?”

 

“Yes. Like the car, I have gotten good offers. The market is hot right now.”

 

“I should think about owning one day. I've traveled too much…I want to settle down.”

 

Jason just nodded. He had the wandering spirit inside of him while Emily had been dragged all over the world practically kicking and screaming. No, she did not kick and scream…she just adapted. The spirits screamed louder to him with each passing year. He wanted to roam the world again as he had in his youth. Perhaps she would buy his house.

 

“Would you like to come up for coffee?” Emily asked when he stopped in front of the large building filled with history.

 

“I don’t want to be awake all night.”

 

“Tea then?”

 

“Tea?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Rain check?” Jason asked.

 

“Sure.” She gave him a nod as she unstrapped her seatbelt. “Goodnight, Agent Gideon.”

 

“Goodnight.”

 

He popped the trunk, watching her get out and go around to the back of the car. Then she was smiling in his window. It felt to Jason like déjà vu…the feeling made him uncomfortable.

 

“Thank you for the ride.”

 

“Why don’t we have dinner?”

 

“Now? It’s rather late.”

 

“At another time, deemed appropriate by the two of us.” Jason replied.

 

“That sounds complex.” Emily replied.

 

“Absolutely not; just wordy.”

 

“Dinner and then tea?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Yes.” she repeated with a smile. “Goodnight.”

 

He waited until she was safely inside before pulling off. He really wanted to go in with her and that was why he said no. He could not help but be drawn to her all those years ago when she took two of his seminars at The Academy. Emily Prentiss’s aura was fascinating and beautiful. Here she was coming back into his life years later and it made Jason wonder. He was rather suspicious of the circumstances.

 

He needed to find out how she came to be in the BAU but first he needed to get some sleep. Emily might join him in his dreams tonight; it would not be the first time. She was better than the nightmares. The rest he would make sense of in the morning. It would likely be very complicated, not unlike the woman herself.

***


End file.
